You already know that stretching is essential. It improves flexibility and mobility (one of many key parts of health) and reduces the chance of harm. And in case you don’t stretch, the muscular tissues can shorten and turn into tight, which may restrict your vary of movement and put you in danger for joint ache or a pulled muscle.
However stretching is simply helpful if it’s executed appropriately. There are a number of frequent stretching errors that may result in the precise reverse of what you’re on the lookout for, equivalent to harm and inflexibility. Listed here are eight pitfalls to keep away from so you’ll be able to enhance your flexibility and your exercises.
1. You’re Doing the Incorrect Sort of Stretching
There are two most important kinds of stretching: static and dynamic. Static stretching is what you in all probability bear in mind from fitness center class: progressively stretching a muscle and holding a pose for about 30 seconds. Whereas it is a nice strategy to settle down from a exercise or improve common flexibility, analysis means that static stretching earlier than a energy exercise may very well trigger a lower in efficiency.
“Throughout a warm-up, you need to do dynamic stretching, which reinforces muscle activation and prepares muscular tissues to be highly effective by means of a full vary of movement,” says Trevor Thieme, CSCS. Dynamic stretches embrace lunges, trunk rotations, leg swings, and leaping rope.
For the post-exercise “cool-down” interval, you’ll be able to concentrate on static stretching to calm down the muscular tissues and launch rigidity. “Each kinds of stretching may also help improve mobility,” Thieme says. “However one excites muscular tissues whereas the opposite calms them down.”
2. You’re Bouncing Whereas Stretching
Utilizing momentum from bouncing to drive a muscle to stretch previous its regular vary (a.okay.a. ballistic stretching) could really feel prefer it’s serving to you improve your vary of movement. However as a substitute of loosening the muscle, this sort of speedy stretching motion can truly trigger the muscular tissues to tighten — a contraction generally known as the myotatic reflex or “stretch reflex.” This may result in accidents like muscle or tendon tears, Thieme says.
3. You’re Stretching Injured Muscle tissues
Stretching injured muscular tissues is “an enormous no-no,” Thieme warns. Muscle strains usually occur when a muscle is stretched past its restrict, so stretching it additional can worsen the harm. As a substitute, use the POLICE protocol (safety, optimum loading, ice, compression, and elevation) to assist the muscle heal.
4. You’re Overstretching
Whereas some discomfort is to be anticipated, it is best to by no means be in ache whereas stretching. “Overstretching can lead to muscle strains or extreme neural rigidity [stretching of the nerves],” says Lindsay Sudell, MOT, OTR/L, CFSS-3, CPT of Merely Stretch LA.
Overstretching may also result in hypermobility, “which is when a joint is just too unfastened and thus unstable,” Thieme says. Know your limits while you’re stretching, and don’t drive your self to transcend them.
5. You’re Not Stretching Constantly
It’s going to take various sporadic stretching periods to attain the flexibleness of a gymnast. Ideally, your stretching periods must be average and frequent quite than intense and occasional.
“With a purpose to obtain bodily, everlasting change, stretching should be constant for six to eight weeks,” says Sudell.
6. You’re Dashing By way of Your Stretches
“Folks typically don’t stretch for the suitable period of time,” explains Sudell. She recommends aiming for 30 seconds or much less for pre-exercise stretches. For post-workout static stretching, intention to carry every stretch for at the very least 60 seconds.
7. You’re Not Doing Sport-Particular Stretches
Sport-specific stretches “may be something focused towards actions {that a} specific athlete wants,” Sudell says. For instance, she says, golfers could concentrate on stretches that enhance their spinal rotation and hip mobility, to allow them to hit the ball with maximal energy. Sprinters can heat up with dynamic stretches that simulate operating and explosive actions, like strolling lunges, butt kicks, and excessive knees.
Analysis additionally exhibits that static stretches are higher suited to athletes who want flexibility (like gymnasts or dancers), whereas dynamic stretches are particularly helpful for many who have to run or soar (like basketball gamers or runners).
8. You’re Ignoring Your Respiratory
Deep, diaphragmatic respiration “may also help calm down tense muscular tissues, and when paired with stretching, can enable for a good deeper stretch with out rising the chance of harm,” Thieme says.
As well as, respiration enhances the therapeutic impact of stretching, Sudell says. Analysis exhibits that diaphragmatic respiration can assist the physique get well after an intense exercise. The correct strategy to breathe throughout a stretch is to slowly inhale by means of the nostril, maintain for a second, then launch the breath by means of both the mouth or nostril, preserving the diaphragm and stomach comfortable and relaxed.